St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1887-01-15
WHAT TO READ.
1oIse Extracts and Compeudluws Pr>.
nounced . Delusion aud : soare.


o"se Extrscts and Compeodlums Prs
"oonced De1usi0n and . Snare.
Handy volumes abound that n
supposed to give the reader the ouin,
essential oil Of all the studious lamp
OF the past. yet it is idle to imagine tia
information. genuine information, is {,
oe got from books in this light and air,
fashion. Polite extracts and compendi
GUS accounts of famous writer's an,
thelr works are sure to find patrons
out they are, for the most part, a de
fusion and snare. II any one want,
70 know all about Gibbon. for instance
the very least he can do is to read thu
great historians life and autobiography
and the whole of ''The Decline and
fal OF the Roman Empire" II yor
refuse to do that, you may be &C
qualnted with somebody else's opinion
ABOUT Gibbon. and you may have 3
smattering of knowledge. saw, concern.
ing the famous fifteenth and sixteenth
chapters. Some persons admire Glib
oons style, some do not Byron
did. and other good Judges
might be cited who agree with
him concerning the author. whom he
Describes Is ''sapping . solemn creed
with solemn sneer." Others regard
ms well-balanccd style as one ..vile
anthesis." Let every one Judge for
himself But how is he to do 50, unless
he reads Gibbon? We should say the
evenings Of an entire winter would not
be i'll spent in reading him from cover
to cover. There is > thoroughness
about such a proceeding which We fear
Is perpetually getting more and more
rare. We have cited but one example,
but it is typical of scores of others.
There are men, though we should say
there are few, who read all Shake
sPeare's plays once every year, After
al. the most diverting books are the
old ones. They are not 50 exciting. in
a sense. though hardly q flattering
sense, as some modern novels. But
they stay with one longer. and one re-
turns to them again. just IS they
were not begottcn in haste. they have
a lasting flavor about them for all who
have in them the least touch of . liter
airy palate. If a man finds Addison
tiresome. it can only Be because he
himself is stupid or blase. and If he can
not read Goldsmith with delight, it
must be because he has lost his
taste for simple pleasure through the
highly spiced literary food he has
bolted. But there is no necessity for a
reader to be exclusive. or to turn his
eye away from the new attraction b.
cause he still fastens them with affec-
ton on tine old. A couple Of cantos Of
the ''Divinia Commedia" may be re-
garded IS an excellent extreme between
the evening paper and some volume of
flashy superficial essays. For there can
be no manner Of doubt, it is very rarely
that new volume has either the body
or the flavor of q good old one. In
deed. the greater part of the current
literature bears about the same relation
to what is called classical literature as
the pictures at the Royal Academy bear
to those at the National Gallery. As one
of Sir William Harcourt's speeches
bears to one of Cicero's phiflippics.
We can not. perhaps. always be read
ing the best, any more than we can
always be thinking at our best. or living
at our best Neque semper arcum
tendit Apollo. The bow can not always
be at full stretch. On the other hand.
We are unwise, even from the point of
view of personal delectation, il we
allow our minds to get SO dyspeptic
from continual devouring of exciting
writings that we are unable to digest,
or enjoy, the more solid food of noble
and simple literature. Stand.
ard.